I woke up with a slight creak in my neck, deducing from it that Octavia and I had fallen asleep while on the couch. My pocket was vibrating, which meant I wasn't woken up by the beautiful sounds of morning. No, just work calling by the name of Neon Lights. I sighed, wiping off my drool and picking my head up from Octavia's shoulder. The couch was one of those super large ones that acted as a bed too, so I had to shimmy off of it. But eventually I succeeded in maneuvering myself off of it and got off. I opened the sliding doors adjacent to the living room and kitchen we were in, hoping the risen sunlight wouldn't wake my angel.
Once I was outside I pressed the answer button, "Yo Neon, wassup?"
"Oh, not much Scratch, I just thought I would tell you that I'm prepared for Octavia now." Neon Lights replied, "My training shouldn't take more than three to six weeks, depending on how adept she is at learning new material and applying it."
I nodded to myself, "That sounds pretty good. I'm surprised that you got prepared so fast. I figured you would still be putting your panties on, ya know. I didn't expect this to be a week after I just saw ya, maybe a month easy."
Neon chuckled, "Heh, I just know when to move fast. And having a favor owed from a Master Assassin can come in handy some day."
"Yeah, for plot." Vinyl mumbled.
"What?"
"Nothing," Vinyl quickly said, "We'll be ready soon enough. I'll tell Octavia and we can be there tomorrow, 'round lunchtime."
"Gotcha, works for me just fine." Neon replied. He sighed, "Alright, well I'll see you then. I gotta do some final prepping for when ya'll arrive."
"See ya man. And thanks a bunch for everything."
"'Course, I see promise when I know it."
Vinyl hung up and made her way back into the house, looking for Octavia. I arrived to see her making what smelled like some tea in one of my shirts that I'd lent her. We were so worn out from the day before that she didn't have time to unpack, which meant that since none of my underwear fit I got to see the positives of going without a bra. Her smile was almost distracting enough to drag me away from the semi-transparent plain white shirt I gave her. Sadly, it was cold enough that she had grabbed some of my sweatpants for the moment. Thankfully I didn't have to take quick peeks or wonder about anything, I was able to comment freely on how much I liked her get up.
I silently slipped in behind her, almost like an assassin, and slipped my hands around her sides. I let them hang down around her waist, pulling her so her butt fit right into my front. "How's my angel doing this fine mornin'?"
"Oh just positively good, dear Vinyl. Say, was that Neon that you were talking to." Octavia took the tea bag out of the kettle, tossing it beside the plate that she'd set aside. "Would you like some tea too?"
"Yeah, it was. He said that we can begin when we're ready, so we'll grab the essentials when we need to go and obviously just take the extra time to go from here to there for the next month. We can relax for the day, but tomorrow is kick off. For the next few months we're gonna get that crash course of everything to make up for Gilda's horrible teaching." I gave Octavia a kiss on the cheek, "But don't worry 'bout it, everything'll go so fast that it's going to feel like a training montage. And no, I'm good for some tea. I'm more of a coffee person myself. Keeps me on my toes."
Once she carefully poured the tea into her cup, the one she had grabbed was labeled 'Made From Scratch'. She turned around, letting my hands rest and her curvy bum. "I suppose that means we have today to relax yes?"
I sneaked a quick peck on her lips, “But of course, anything for my dear angel of my life.”
Octavia giggled, and I could see her cheeks becoming tinged with red, “You flirt. I do think I could always use some more cuddling. Your abode does feature some quaint spots for such a thing.”
“Yeah, I guess it’ll actually be a good while until we get a break.” I picked her up, letting her legs straddle me. After I gave her a few seconds to grab her tea, I set us down on the couch. The view of her from sitting on my lap was almost enough to make me override the cuddling. My shirt was conveniently tight on her, letting some side boob be revealed on the side. Yet again I was pretty much speechless on how lucky I was to be in the situation with such a babe.
“Did I ever tell you how much of a hot babe you are?” I said, voicing my thoughts.
Octavia scoffed, “I cannot say that I’m sure that’s how I’d like to be described.” She leaned closer, wrapping her arms around my neck. “However, I suppose I can understand it’s how you express your fatuation. So, have I told you how especially thrilled I am to be able to be in this position?”
I grinned, “Well you have now.” I noticed Octavia had put down her tea. This led me to navigate her to be the little spoon of the cuddle-fest of the couch.
“Ooh, I think this is quite nice. And-Miss Scratch, might you wait until a more appropriate time to grope my bosom?” Octavia mentioned candidly.
“Of course, heh.”
Nothing was said for awhile after that. It was noon so we didn’t have much to do other than our current situation, and even if we did have to do something we’d have plenty of time. It was nice having my girlfriend next to me, warming me up both metaphorically and literally. It’d been awhile since I’d been able to say that. Most of my life had been training and missions, it was why I had become a Master Assassin so soon.
I’d essentially become a child soldier with a different title. The only time I’d been even close to anyone was desperate attachment to anyone teaching me the ways of leading someone on and other bedroom tactics, all for the mission. Excluding the worst parts of everything, it did let me find out how much women enticed me. I mean, it wasn’t a coincidence that I took a liking to Octavia. She’s got some huge boobs, I mean some serious honkers, a real set of badonks, a lar-
“Vinyl?”
I snapped back to reality, “Yeah?”
"Thanks for this." I could practically hear the smile in her voice.
"'Course, it's not just for you. I mean, I really wanted this too. Like, who doesn't want to cuddle? It's pretty much my secret profession." I said, nuzzling into her neck. Even though Octavia had me beat in certain aspects body-wise, I did have her a bit in height. This lent me to be the natural big spoon, which I gladly took the reigns of.
"No, not this specifically. Not that I do not appreciate it," Octavia mentioned, seeming to notice my heavy silence after it. "It is everything you've done so far."
"Oh do tell. I love having my ego stroked."
"Mhmm, well. To be completely honest with you Vee, I really never got this far with anyone. As much as I like to act confident and take charge in the flirting per say." I chuckled a bit, thinking back to the applicable moments she was mentioning. But still listening, because I wanted to know every side of her. "I never had time to get a girlfriend or boyfriend, especially when I came here. As much as I want to act like I did, everything we do is a first for me. I never even had practice like you did. Even so, I must say Vinyl, I am having the time of my life in the short time we've been together."
I squeezed Octavia tightly, "I'm a little speechless Octy, but I won't say that I don't appreciate it. I had a girlfriend here, a boyfriend here, and all my hits when I had to, so I can't say there'll be much we're gonna do that I haven't. Still, I have to say for sure that the way I feel for you is definitely a first for my relationships. It was always essentially a fling at most, and I could never have had something that I have with you right now."
Octavia scooted closer to me, "Vinyl...you sweetheart."
I tisked, "Yeah, yeah, I know. Let's get past all this mushy stuff for now and relax. We've got a big, well, month and longer ahead of us."
"Fine, I guess we can move on to something else." Octavia snuggled into me, "I really mean everything though. I would not want to be with anyone else."
"Same here Tavi, same here."
The next day came way too fast, and before I knew it we were driving to Neon’s shop. Once we got there, it was easy to find him again in the shelves and shelves of weaponry and such that filled the store. We got to him just as he finished up with a customer.
“How’s it goin’ Neon?” I said, “Ready to show Octy how everything’s actually done?”
Neon walked past us and flipped the sign on the entrance to closed, "You know it Vee, we'll get right into everything."
"Might I ask what we are starting with?" Octavia asked, looking a bit nervous.
Neon led us to the range that he and I had been to the last time I was there, "We're going to do a base test of everything today. So, when I see where you're at I can create the plan for however long I need to get you ready for everything. Whether it's gonna be missions, or just defending or attacking, I know you're probably not where you need to be. We need to get you to be able to have a chance to keep up with Master Scratch over here, which could take a couple months or a few weeks depending on this."
"I see..." Octavia mumbled, slightly nodding.
Thus began the grueling task of going through every single weapon that Neon had. And just when we thought it was over, he would reveal yet another room or shelf, even hidden panels that held weapons I'd only gotten explicit permission on highly classified missions to use. Each of them required to be shot, disassembled, and reassembled in a certain time and with a certain accuracy to pass Neon's standards. It was no wonder he said the whole day would be needed, each one took about ten minutes to deal with.
It wasn't that Octavia hadn't seen any of the weapons in her time, even I could tell that she was doing fine with all of them. At least, the ones that were easily accessible to someone in her position. The problem that was arising was from her past ability to get hands on training with each gun. Some barely ever saw the light of day because of how difficult they were to procure. Octavia was doing better than I thought she would have been doing, and it seemed to be the same case for Neon too though.
It was almost midnight when we arrived at the last gun and finished. I had fallen asleep at one point, finding this out by getting shaken awake by Octy and waking up to a glorious view of some cleavage. I grinned, "I like the view Tavi. I wouldn't mind getting woke up like this a little more frequently."
Octavia's squinted her eyes and a thin line formed at her mouse, "Yes, well I will consider it when you behave with a little more couth in front of others hmm?"
I sighed practically feeling my imaginary floppy ears go from pointy to flopped over in sadness, "Okayyy, you know Neon doesn't care." I directed my voice toward him, "You clapped those cheeks yet Neon?"
Neon turned around from putting the gun that Octavia had been firing up, grinning, "Little uncouth of ya to say that in front of your girl huh Scratch?"
"You've only been around Octy for like twelve hours and you're already using her lingo. I'll have you know that I am just trying to support my good buddy here." I stretched, letting myself slump further into my seat and cross my arms. "So, any update?"
Neon made his way over to me, leaning against a table near where I was, "Yeah, nothing much though. Lily Heart and I just had some coffee in a nearby cafe yesterday morning, we planned to go to the mission board at the Academy after I'm done with you guys and I hand in the paperwork." He looked to Octavia, who had occupied herself with one of the other guns, likely for some final moments of practice before we left. Once he seemed confident that she wouldn't hear him, he leaned toward me and whispered. "Listen, okay I think I may owe you one Scratch. She's literally too perfect, and I've only known her for like a day. Everything you described about her wasn't even close to how she actually is dude. What even is that Wonderbolts Academy?"
I stifled a laugh, "They fit right in your hands don't they?"
"Oh, they will, among many other things, don't worry about that." Neon put his fist out for me to bump. Which I did. "Seriously, though, thank you Vinyl. If you need to borrow anything from this stash, 'cause I know I saw you eyein' a few things, don't hesitate to ask."
"Thanks man, I appreciate it. And I'm glad it's working out." I turned to Octavia, "Hey Octy, I think it's time we get back to home, alright?"
Octavia looked up from her half reassembled gun, "Sounds good Vinyl, let me finish this and we can depart."
I brought my attention back to Neon, "I guess I'll hear where you think she is, the plan moving forward, etcetera when we get here tomorrow?"
"For sure, I'll need a bit more of the day, so come 'round two and we can go over everything. After tomorrow though, it's full send." He got up to pick up the gun from Octavia, putting it on the shelf.
Octavia stopped beside me, halfway out the door, "Ready, love?"
"Yup, let's go."
It was two o' clock and we sat in a break room with Neon, waiting for him to sort everything and tell us the plan for the training. Octavia and I sat on the couch together, legs entangled and falling in and out of sleep while we waited. Neon on the other hand was sifting through piles of paper, and fixing a white board next to him. Which implied he was likely going to be taking longer than I was hoping to explain everything.
I yawned and shifted so Octavia's head was a little more comfortable on me, "So, Neon, what's the plan here bud?"
"It's something," Neon replied, pinning a few papers with highlights and calendars with magnets on the board, "Just give me a few moments to get everything together and I'll tell you guys the full plan."
True to his word, Neon took a few moments to get everything together. I tapped Octavia awake, and wrapped my arm around her when she shifted to be upright. "Okay, get ready Octavia, these are never entertaining. Sadly, they're always going to be important to anything we do."
"And that is, dear Vinyl?" Octavia asked, wiping the sleep from her eyes.
"A briefing." I said, making spooky motions with my hands and body.
Neon cleared his throat, obviously trying to get our attention. "Okay you two, mainly you Octavia. Based off the results I saw and gathered from the exercises yesterday I would have to say that training you in everything necessary will take about six weeks."
"That's not too bad." I mentioned.
"Yeah, well each one is highly concentrated with no breaks on the weekends." Neon replied, "This first couple weeks will be purely focused on improving your accuracy with everything, all the weapons that I think necessary to become proficient in. The second couple weeks will be tactics and how to use your new proficiency in everything. The third will be testing you on the last two weeks. Finally, the fifth and sixth week will be testing you on everything and fixing any tidbits that should be corrected.” Neon sat back in his chair. “So how does that sound?”
I stroked an imaginary beard, "Hmm, I like how that sounds. Looks like something I'd plan up, especially the six week constraint."
Neon grinned, "Yeah, can't get away from the classics."
"Well," I clapped my hands together, "Shall we get goin'?"
"Let's." Octavia replied.
With that we went to the range to get a basis for Octavia's shooting skill. While it was likely decent, even adept compared to most, it was probably not going to be enough for Neon considering his skill level. Even though he ran a quaint little shop, he was considered one of the top snipers in the world at one point. He had enough confirmed kills alone to have them classified, otherwise too many questions would be asked. Obviously, now he didn't do that anymore, his decade or so of missions had caused him to look for some well deserved rest and relaxation. Sometimes he would go to shooting competitions, just to brush up on his skills. But he only did it every so often, since he kept winning them all.
I could already see the serious Neon take over, with his calculating eye judging Octavia's handling of the ever so timeless M1911. I grabbed a chair and a pair of ear pro, sitting down in a position to get a good view of her shooting stance. The ripped jeans she wore hugged tightly and the sleeveless crop top kept her cleavage on a good display. I’d get to see all the jello jiggle nicely once the bigger guns came out, but right now all I was able to do was critique for the future. Neon was already on it, fixing firing stance, breathing and such. But I still kept in mind the most important thing in mind; someone who has learned as much as Octavia is going to have a difficult time relearning everything than compared to someone who is completely new at it.
This day was just a tell period, helping Neon find out what he needed to know, but I could see that he really would need these next couple of weeks to get Octavia close to perfection. “How’s she looking to you Neon?”
Neon looked up Octavia up and down, “Pretty hot in this, I gotta say I understand the fetish for girls with big boobs. They always seem to fill out in the back.”
Octavia went to wack him in the shoulder, but he caught her elbow and redirected her hand to her forehead. I chuckled, “No, dimwit, what’s her skill level look like?”
“Oh, oh I see.” Neon replied, grinning back toward Octavia, “Well, we’re really gonna need the rest of today to tell. Though, from what I’m seein’, I’ve gotta say we’re gonna need the full few weeks.”
I sighed, “I figured that would be the case. I guess that’s what it takes, their training school is a couple months long anyway. So I guess with Quibble Pants and Rara helping out too, that may be what it comes out to. Hopefully less so we can report back to Twilight soon.”
“Well if you two scoundrels would stop discussing such things and actually teach, we could get things moving along, yes?” Octavia huffed, obviously a little fake peeved.
By the next day, the real training had begun. It was onto practicing the basics, but it was still the most important. Octavia had her posture down pretty well, and after a few tweaks it was perfect. But she was having quite the problem with breathing. Sight picture and trigger squeeze were coming up and I was ready to suggest my age old trick with trigger squeeze. “Keep it up Tavi, every hour you get better. Not as good as I am, but still a respectable amount.”
“Ah, piss off Scratch.” Octavia had been practicing her breathing for a couple hours. It seemed her usual calm demeanor formed from her rich and uppity upbringing had cracked. “Unless you are going to going to provide a calming something, I will continue this escapade of failure.”
I nodded absently, using all my brainpower to think of something acceptable, “Ah, I see.” I moved over between Neon and Octavia, who had just finished her last mag of bullets for her grouping. I tapped on her ear pro, waiting till she popped it slightly off her ear. With that done, I whispered my suggestion for stress relief into her ear and gestured with my head toward the bathroom.
“Now, love,” Octavia said to me, her cheeks tinged with red, “As much as I would love to take you up on the offer. I think that the suggestion as a goal is enough for me today, but tonight I expect to cash in, yes?”
“Roger that.” I smirked, sitting back down in my original position to continue watching. And so it continued, their practice steadily continued for the next couple days until Neon felt Octavia was ready for her first test. It would be a simple shooting drill, but against Neon it would likely have to involve some kind of handicap for him to be even close to the same level as her.
In my usual spot I was able to look over to Neon and see him putting on a blindfold. Ignoring the many safety rules we were setting on fire to have this challenge occur, I turned my gaze over to my angel. “You’re gonna do great Octy! He’s only got a slight handicap, y’all are practically on even ground!”
“Oh piss off!” Octavia said back, “I can see it is quite the opposite.”
Thus the test began, and with just five targets and two shots each, it really came down to how close you were to a bullseye with each shot. Every student in all the schools for assassins were able to at least be immensely accurate and decent at precision. The real trick for being considered to be at least professional at this was a grouping all in the ten point circle. In Neon’s case, he was able to keyhole four of five shots most of the time. With the blindfold, well, it took it down to a confidant maybe at two of five shots.
The last beep came faster than I expected, bringing the last shots with it. I moved out of my seat and to Octavia’s lane once they both had placed their weapons on safe. “How’d you do Tavi? Exceptionally adequate at the least, I hope.”
“Hardy har, dear. I think decent is the word you are searching for.” Octavia said, tapping the paper. It was decent for sure, better than her initial skill level had shown.
I nodded, “Not bad. But,” I looked over at Neon’s sheet, which had my predicted outcome. “Still need a good bit more experience that practice is only going to help. Sure, he may hold the longest kill ever recorded, which experience helped. But repetition from practice helped him not make any mistakes that would’ve caused him to miss. Does that make any sense, love?”
“I suppose you make some good points,” Octavia admitted, “But I still would like to be able to keep up with you during missions.”
I grinned, “Don’t worry Octy, you’re keeping up where it matters.” Noticing her blush, I pecked her cheek. “Right now experience outranks everything, and you’ll have plenty of time to catch up.”
Octavia’s practice continued, keeping with the basics she had begun with. And by the end of the first half of the three weeks, she had learned the first couple basics. The last week and a half contained sight picture and trigger squeeze, the latter we began with so I could throw my universal teaching method into play. It also let my theory on how Gilda even got in and if she even taught Octavia a lick of anything be tested.
Once I had gotten into researching how Gilda was admitted, I could tell that some sort of bias and trickery was done. The usual admission process was done through an invitation to come try out. The participant would then go through a rigorous testing process, much longer but reminiscent of the training that I wanted Octavia to experience. After they were tested thoroughly, the last test would be one of their instructor’s choosing. Sometimes it was picking a C or so ranked mission from the mission board and completing it themselves. But sometimes it was more obtuse. And I figured she may have, just maybe, have seduced the instructor.
I had no evidence, but my universal teaching method included stress by flirting. It was a rare method, but worked because of how much it threw people off guard. I figured that Gilda knew about it and had applied it a little too well. Because I heard that soon after they got in, the instructor had left to the mafia because of ‘unrelated reasons’ to the academy.
“Okay Tavi, we’re almost done with our time at good ‘ol Neon’s. You’ve improved to what I need to bring you to Rara’s. But I wanna make sure that you are truly good to go.” I sat across a table from Octavia, both of us were blindfolded so I couldn’t see her reaction. I could hear her huff though, “Now, this test is going to tell if you really know your way around these weapons and can do well under pressure.”
“As much as I love the application of your new kink Scratch, what exactly does the blindfold and test entail?” Octavia asked .
I grinned internally, “It’s a race, with a small application of my patented universal teaching method. Basically, there is a fully stripped weapon in front of us, and a door to my right and your left. We’ve gotta put it all back together and go through the lane that you’ve been doing for the whole time you’ve been here. At the end, we have one sentence to fluster the other person before you have to immediately shoot for the head on a target a decent distance away. The best results from the lane and the end test will dictate if we leave. Got it?”
“I suppose…” I could hear Octavia shift in her seat, “Why use this method, Scratch? It does not seem very...functional. To say the least."
“Trust me Octy, it’s never failed me.” I didn’t need to tell her that the reason it had never failed me was because I had never tried it. Was it quibbling? Yes. But she didn’t need to know that.
We headed to our respective doors for each lane, a table next to each door held the stripped weapon that we needed for the challenge. The lanes featured every type of shooting and counted the points electronically with some fancy system I had no time to think about or wanted to. I already knew my sentence that I wanted to say, so I figured I would go a little easy on the lane so Octavia could likely win in the end. She was ready, I already knew that, but beating me at anything I genuinely put effort into was a whole different mountain she would need to climb. Right now it was about training her for a mission, not her career.
Within seconds, Neon had given the command to begin and I flew through putting back the weapon into its original state. Though I might win the first stretch of the competition, it was just there to put added stress to Octavia. I was just hoping that she would be able to go through the lane well enough to check of the boxes. For our upcoming mission, I really just needed improvement, not perfection. Octaiva’s results over the training held currently and the future training would truely tell me if she was up for bigger and better things that being romantically and tactically with a Master Assassin would bring.
The lane itself wasn’t difficult for someone of my caliber. Not that my personality allowed for bragging, but the lane was almost too easy. The pop up targets came up so slowly that you knew what the target was, civilian or enemy, before it was even set. Each barricade and C-wire strategically set to slow seemed to help my flow instead of impede it. And our rifles, a simple M4 build with nothing but itself. Normally it would be a Pimp My Weapon extravaganza, but with the need to get Octavia prepared for anything I had requested the stock M4. She needed to be able to shoot the worst the enemy might have the best she could, and it would definitely make shooting through sights extremely easier.
5000 words
Weaving through obstacles, double tapping enemies in the head, and moving like I was looking for a new world record time in the mile high club I finished well before Octavia did. Which was fine, I hadn’t planned to go too easy on her. I leaned on the final table that held the lane for shooting a simple mag of fifteen bullets. It wasn’t much to end with for a reason. The amount of points gained from shooting the target didn’t really matter, it was about the single sentence to fluster the other person.
Not long after I arrived, Octavia made her way to the table huffing and puffing. I laughed a bit, it was cute though, “Are you ready, dear Octy?”
“More than you Scratch.”
I laughed more, “But of course, as you should be right? This is your test after all. Let’s hear it then, what could you possibly say to fluster me in my current state?”
It was Octavia’s turn to laugh, “Nothing too complicated.”
I made a dramatic motion to cup my ear and hear the full extent of the alleged flustering sentence. There was no way that it was going to happen, but I had to make it fun nonetheless. Her breath tickled my ear, but I was prepared, nothing could phase a Master Assassin. The training to get certified after meeting the requirements was tough, mind breaking, and few made it to the actual title. I shifted my feet, getting as ready as I could.
“I have recently realized that I don’t just really like you Vinyl, I love you.”
The sound of fifteen rounds being fired in succession covered my reaction.
It was a good moment, I wasn’t going to deny it. But it took long enough for me to come out of my stupor that Neon came inside and called the lane. We sat back in the shop soon after to discuss Octavia’s results.
“I have to say Tavi, you definitely have come a long way in this past month.” I said, waving my hand all womanly in front of my face. One of those fans and I would complete the look. “You’re ready for the last couple weeks of testing, which means I’m going to turn you over to Neon for that. He’s got the things that he and I want to be touched on. Nothing you haven’t done, just some added stuff and pizzazz.”
I could tell Octavia was pleased with herself, “Thank you Vinyl, when do we start this next phase if I may ask?”
“Tomorrow,” I replied, “You need to rest a bit and have a fresh mind and body for these tests.”
“Shall we get going then?” Octavia asked, already standing up to get out of the shop.
Neon, who had been silent, pulled his earbuds out, “Yeah I agree, you’ve done good Octavia. Let’s get after this and get you on your way. Admittedly, I didn’t just set this timeline for a reason. Lily Heart and I have a window of time we both can go on missions as a first time team that just so happens to line up with your departure.”
I looked to Octavia, “He means that you better not fail any of the tests and keep him from going on his first date.”
“Of course Neon, don’t expect any less of me. I promise to complete everything to perfection.” Octavia giggled while she made her way out the door.
I waved goodbye to Neon and caught up to Octavia, leaning down I whispered into her ear, “I love you more.”